ENVIRONMENTAL scientist, Dr Tim Flannery, believes large animals like cattle and sheep are essential to restoring the health of the planet and reducing greenhouse gas levels.
Dr Flannery said the planet and its atmosphere had evolved through the interaction between plants and animals.
He said 99 percent of gases we breathed were produced by plants and animals but about 200 years ago humans discovered fossil fuels which, "combined with our destruction of living things like forests and soils, had pumped tens of billions of extra tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere".
The forum at which Mr Flannery was speaking last week was organised by Meat and Livestock Australia in a move to get on to the front foot in the increasingly noisy debate about whether people should become vegetarians to save the planet.
The five environmentalists on the panel were the Climate Institute's Corey Watts, Murdoch University Professor of Sustainable Agriculture, Nick Costa, NSW livestock producer, Sam Archer, the MLA's Beverley Henry and Dr Flannery.
There was general agreement with Professor Flannery that large farm animals helped retain fertility in the land and recycled carbon but also that they had to be better managed and bred to maximise their environmental benefit while reducing methane gas emissions.
He backed cell grazing where stock are rotated around paddocks to ensure desirable grasses and herbs survive.
Dr Flannery and Mr Watts opposed including agriculture in the Federal Government's carbon pollution reduction scheme (CPRS), saying such a regulatory framework would be a nightmare if imposed on family farmers.
Instead agriculture should be opened up for carbon offsets.
Dr Costa declared red meat could be "nutritious, clean and green" and MLA managing director, David Palmer, said livestock industries had cut greenhouse gas emissions by 7.5pc since 1990.
During the same time emissions from electricity generation had risen by 49.5pc and transport by 26.9pc.
Mr Palmer said a joint $28 million initiative between the Federal Government and the livestock sector would research ways to measure and reduce livestock emissions.
The MLA has also decided to wade into several other anti-red meat debates including the push, mainly by academics, to replace sheep and cattle with kangaroos.
Putting aside the fact that kangaroos would be almost impossible to manage, MLA has estimated that 112 million roos would be needed to replace the eight million cattle now slaughtered in Australia each year.
And it has taken a swipe at the frequently reported claims that it takes up to 100,000 litres of water to produce a kilogram of beef.
The MLA said the correct figure, according to a University of NSW analysis, was between 18 to 540 litres, depending on the production system.
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